Clap!

“Eighty-six!” Solera groaned, his face red from exertion. Clap! “Eighty-seven!”

Solera mustered up energy for the eighty-eighth push-up, but failed miserably.

Solera laid on the ground, savoring the burn coursing through his arms. He hadn’t done a serious training session since he had left the Grove. Actually, with his right leg still injured, this session couldn’t count as one either.

“Okay, one hundred tumbles.” Solera mumbled. “Last fifty with sword drawn. One! ... Two! … Three!”

On the other side of the room, Chip thumbed through a manual, his right hand making strange motions as he read. In the bed next to him was Guinness, who was sleeping like a log.

“You’re looking pretty healthy, Solera.” Macaw walked into the chamber, an easygoing smile on his face. “How are your legs?”

“Pretty all right.” Solera stopped tumbling to look nervously at Macaw. He had downplayed the severity of his injury when they had escaped in an effort to make his future recovery seem more natural, but he couldn’t shake the fear that his secret would be discovered and his power crystal confiscated. With Chip knowing about it now, his fears grew a bit more.

“Nice, nice. I remember having infinite regeneration when I was young.” Macaw slapped Solera’s shoulder. “Anyway, Skadi came back. You should come outside to take a look, he’s setting up quite the show.”

Chip closed the book, a frown on his face. Seeing this, Macaw raised a hand.

“Chianti talked to Leera. Skadi is not allowed to take you kids on missions anymore, no matter what he says.” Macaw scratched his head. “But I wouldn’t feel too relieved if I were you. The United Duchies are zeroing in on our location. It’s a race to see whether Lord Uthman will arrive before the Duchies discovers where our base is.”

Solera had heard of Lord Uthman. He was the governor of Klora, a city several hundred kilometers north of Fortress Hickory that had been conquered by Eden three hundred years ago.

“Wait a second!” Solera exclaimed. “Will Klora even help us? They’ve only been part of Eden for three hundred years!”

“That’s an excellent, excellent question.” Macaw rubbed his forehead. “It was Leera who led the campaign to conquer Klora that time. Several of Lord Uthman’s relatives died in the fighting, so whether or not he and the Klora garrison will come is still up in the air.”

Macaw slapped the snoring Guinness a few times. “Basically, we’re stuck between the Airborne centered at Fortress Hickory in the west and three United Duchies armies to the east, waiting for another force to help us break through the encirclement. Or maybe Skadi will pull some shit out of his ass, let’s go see.”

Guinness groggily climbed out of his bed. After looking around for a few moments, he grabbed his toothbrush and headed off into the corridor.

“What’s Skadi doing, exactly?” Chip asked, an indifferent expression on his face.

Macaw shrugged. “Nobody knows. But he brought a King Tiger back from the United Duchies without them noticing. It’s still alive, and tied up in a clearing outside.”

A King Tiger? Solera’s eyes widened in shock. King class monsters were over ten meters tall, and were always possessed by immensely powerful spirits. The only king class monster Solera had ever seen was the reindeer that had brought them to Peat city! Every single king-class monster was a treasure; how had Skadi captured a King Tiger without its summoner noticing?

Chip flipped the book closed and got out of his chair. “What could Skadi possibly do with a King Tiger? It already has a spirit possessing it. Is he going to dissect it?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he will have it roll around in mud to see what poor people do for fun.” Macaw snickered. “What’s your exosuit made out of, anyway? I’ll keep your secret, but I do want to know more about it.”

“I don’t know either.” Chip tugged on his hair several times. “I just knew what it was and what it did. I don’t know how it works.”

“That’s too bad, then.” Macaw didn’t press the issue, so they waited in silence for Guinness to come back from brushing his teeth. Solera could hear multiple groups of footsteps going through the corridor as they waited.

“Everyone off duty is going to see what Skadi is up to. He always does crazy things.” Macaw laughed. “Immortals and summoners, they’re always insane.”

When Guinness came back, they went through the twisting passageways. After a quarter of an hour, they emerged onto the bottom of an unassuming hilltop covered with shrubbery and trees, one wave in an ocean of forest. Nearly a thousand other soldiers were gathered there, taking seats around the base of the hill. The sun was not out yet, but rays of its light could be seen peeking out from the eastern horizon.

Solera could see small bunnies scampering through the bushes of the hill. A flock of birds flew overhead. At the top of the hill was the prone body of an enormous tiger. It was so large that even from this distance, Solera could see it breathing. Lining the hilltop were rows of caged animals. A glass box filled with a dark swarm of fleas stood next to the silhouette of a muscular man. Skadi.

Chianti walked out from the throng, taking a seat next to them. Her eyes looked tired, as if she hadn’t slept for hours.

“Where’s Verreaux?” Macaw asked as he popped a cracker in his mouth.

“Didn’t come. He’s paying his respects to Fischer.” Chianti said, grabbing a cracker from Macaw.

“Ah, he was always the sentimental one.” Macaw shrugged. “Everyone has their own ways of coping, I guess.”

Chianti glared at him. “You just go have sex with prostitutes, don’t you?”

“Escorts, they’re escorts.” Macaw waved his hand. “They comfort me. Like a wife, but cheaper and more replaceable.”

“Shut your damn mouth, Macaw.” Chianti looked away, an irritated expression on her face.

“Whose animals are all those?” Solera asked, pointing at the cages in an attempt to change the subject.

“Leera’s.” Macaw smiled. “She lugged up her entire menagerie. This is quite interesting.”

At that moment, Skadi stood up, lithely leaping onto the top of the King Tiger’s body.

“Friends!” He raised both arms into the air to quiet everyone down. Within two seconds, the talking disappeared entirely.

“I’m sure you have all heard of the Gardener, the Sky God who ruled the northern continent. Our very own Eden can trace our roots back to Him.” Skadi smiled. “Our royal family is descended from the Gardener! Although everyone is encouraged to worship him, it’s not a particularly big deal whether or not you do. Actually, many of you do not care about the Gardener at all.”

“But the Gardener cares for His plants.” Skadi curled a hand into a fist. “Prepare yourselves for the descent of a foot soldier from the Garden in Sky, the first of many!”

He picked up a barrel and flipped it upside down. Dust rained down onto the King Tiger’s head. A soldier rolled another barrel over. It, too, was dumped onto the King Tiger’s head.

“Th-that can’t be summoning dust, can it?” A nearby soldier gasped. “That’s too much!”

A third barrel of dust fell upon the King Tiger’s body.

“General Leera shall do the honors of welcoming a new Throne into Land!” Skadi shouted as a reindeer pulled up alongside him, with Leera on its back.

“A new Throne!” The audience erupted into immense commotion. Solera, too, could not contain his excitement.

Thrones were the highest class of spirit possible to summon! By definition, they were vastly powerful; the Grove Tender of Eden and the General of the Bloodsand Dominion were the most famous Thrones Solera knew about.

Although a Throne’s cultivation depended greatly on the vessel it possessed, their channeling capabilities were limitless! Every single Throne could fight on par with an Immortal. If they had a Throne on their side, wouldn’t breaking out of their encirclement be made a thousand times easier?

“Hold it!” A man dressed in military uniform stepped out of the crowd. “Summoning a Throne is an impossibly dangerous thing to do! What if Leera loses control? What about its Dominion? You’re dealing with devils here!”

“Fool!” Skadi shouted. “Leera does not need to control it, nor its Dominion. This is a spirit raised in Sky by the Gardener himself, sent to assist us! Why else did you think the Gardener left Land?”

He slammed a palm into the mud, grunting from some unseen exertion. “Proceed!”

Leera raised a hand to the sky, fervently whispering. “The Gardener is the Sun that guides, the light that nourishes. He is all-powerful, unstoppable. My subordinates, the only thing the Gardener wants is your loyalty. You are his Land, and he is your Sky!”

A tendril of power drifted out of her hand, floating through the air until it made contact with the summoning dust.

Blinding flashes of light shot out as space distorted wherever the dust had been. The dust had disappeared, vanished off the face of Land. In its place was a gaping hole filled with flashing green lights. Power leaked out of the borders into the corporeal world, forming a mist that began to envelop the entire hilltop. This was a rift into Sky!

A wind rolled up the hill, sending leaves blowing every which way. One flew towards the rift, taking a path that made it seem as if it would pass straight through. Yet, at the point of contact, the leaf changed direction and floated along the rift’s surface before disappearing out of view. At the edges of the rift, the border between Land and Sky, space did not exist. The leaf would never be able to touch Sky.

Brilliant dots of light shot out of the rift, all either a rich green or dazzling yellow color. Hundreds of them, no, thousands of them bubbled out of the rift and flickered into the corporeal world like a luminous dust cloud. Scattered among the countless specks of light were larger ones, perhaps the size of a walnut or a fingernail. Solera knew these lights were spirits from Sky!

The lights flooded everywhere, yet made sure to remain inside the fog of green power. They could only exist within that cloud, just like the leaf could only exist in Land. The grass swayed as another wind rolled over them. All at once, the tiny lights began to move in a coordinated fashion.

Countless lights sunk into the ground, causing the grass to tremble. A flood of miniscule lights passed straight through the glass box of fleas. One flea after another dropped to the bottom of the box, forming a mass of twitching and writhing insects at the bottom of the box.

A soldier walked up to the box with a sledgehammer and smashed it open. Hundreds of fleas rolled out of the box, their bodies making crackling noises as they violently expanded.

Trees sprouted from the ground, using power as their only sustenance to grow. The rift hummed as power and spirits flooded out. Now, spirits as large as Solera’s hand were shooting out, each accompanied by hundreds of smaller spirits. The cages rattled as the animals within pounded the bars. Larger spirits drifted into the cages, sending the animals reeling onto the floor. Several mercenaries walked past the cages, unlocking them one by one and tossing out the bodies.

Clouds of imps appeared from the distance. They dipped down as they flew over the hilltop. One spirit after another flew into them, causing the imps to crash into the ground. Grass rose up from the ground, shrouding the countless twitching bodies from view.

Every single soldier had their mouths wide open. Wasn’t this only the prelude to a Throne’s descent?

The trees twisted as they grew, their branches intertwining with each other and merging seamlessly together to form a single entity, whose form constantly shifted as the wood shifted around, almost as if it was water.

“Isn’t this like Fortress Hickory?” Solera asked, his mind reeling from incredulity. From nothing, such a massive tree had been created! This was too fantastical, like something out of legend!

An ear-splitting drone rang out. Suddenly, a vast horde of imps shot out of the meters-tall grass into the sky, followed by much larger versions of themselves. They looked grotesque, something in between insect and human, and were almost all as large as the average man.

Gusts of wind flattened the tall grass as a King Eagle flew into the air to join them. The horns of several King Reindeer appeared as they emerged. Standing upright on their backs were a plethora of monsters, some furred, others shelled; Solera could not tell what they had been before. A ten-meter tall King Gorilla lumbered into view, standing in the center of the group of reindeer. A King Snapjaw appeared, its gleaming shell covered with more monsters. Hundreds… thousands…

A man emerged from the grass, a wide smile on his face. It was Skadi.

“Even a foot soldier from the Garden must have his servants in Land. It is almost time for his appearance!”

The tree groaned as its growth slowed to a stop. Its branches trembled, before spreading out like the blooming of a flower. At the top of the tree was the standing silhouette of another giant, eight meters tall.

Its feet were distinctly human, yet not. Its legs and torso were encased by a suit of glowing yellow armor, and its face was chiseled and ruthless. Only its large snout and whiskers told Solera that it had once been a King Tiger.

The Throne raised a hand up to the sky. A small dot appeared in the center of its palm. As it grew, Solera could see that the dot was actually a battleaxe, shimmering with an otherworldly gleam.

An eruption of light, accompanied by a loud bang, shot out from the battleaxe. This was a legendary Sky artifact, which could change size at will while it had not yet taken corporeal form!

The battle axe smashed into the dirt in front of Skadi. Cursing, several soldiers withdrew their swords, only to freeze up as every single monster knelt onto the ground.

After a moment, the Throne raised its head to look at Skadi.

“On behalf of the Gardener, we serve!”